


The History of You

by ShepGoesWhat



Series: Things Unnoticed, Words Unsaid [6]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: F/M, Mass Effect 2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 02:00:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11094558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShepGoesWhat/pseuds/ShepGoesWhat
Summary: While the Collectors threaten the Terminus System, Shepard discovers a plot closer to home.** May contain spoilers for ME:A





	1. A Wonderful Start

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spacer / War Hero / Engineer  
> Set during ME2, after Reaper IFF, before Collector attack

Shepard had just finished a checkup with Chakwas when she heard beatboxing coming from the AI Core. Likely Legion at it again. She chuckled to herself, remembering the first time she'd caught the geth doing the Robot. After she'd managed to pick her jaw off the floor, she'd asked, "Legion, what are you doing?"

It replied as smoothly as ever, "We are building a consensus."

She was still smiling from the memory when she stepped into the AI Core. Her eyes lit up, and she thought it was quite possibly the best day of her life. She leaned against the door and crossed her arms, enjoying the view of Garrus awkwardly twisting at the waist with his arms stretched out in front of him.

She must have made a sound because Garrus suddenly whipped his head around, his mandibles flaring with surprise. "Shepard! I, uh, thought you were busy with mission reports."

"Thought I'd take a break. See what you guys were up to."

"Shepard-Commander," Legion greeted. "This platform was attempting to be of assistance to Garrus Vakarian."

"And what assistance would that be?"

"He has requested that we provide data on human dances. This platform was showing him the Robot."

She tried to hold back her laugh and failed completely. Garrus coughed. "I... I just remembered, I'm in the middle of some calibrations." He moved to leave the room, but she shot her arm out, blocking his path.

"Hey now. What's the rush? Why don't you show me what you've learned so far?" she asked, her eyes glinting wickedly.

She saw the look of wild desperation in his eyes before he composed himself. "Shepard. I heard Tali wanted to see you in Engineering. Something very important. Top priority. Can't wait another minute."

"Uh huh. Better show me quick then," she said, grinning. 

Their eyes locked and held in a battle of the wills until Joker's voice crackled over the comms. "Commander, we're picking up a distress signal near Feynman."

Feynman? Her brows furrowed. Besides the planet's strong magnetosphere, the planet had nothing of interest. And its proximity to Bekenstein meant that it automatically fell under the protection of the Alliance. "Anything specific?"

"No, ma'am. Just a general distress call. It seems to be coming from the second largest moon, Bethe."

She sighed and dropped her arm. Garrus shot her a smug smile as he headed for the battery. "Take us in, Joker."

* * *

Twenty minutes later, she was standing on the rocky moon, scouring through a small mining colony with Garrus and Tali at her back. Their scanners hadn't detected any life signs, but her eyes swept back and forth, searching for survivors regardless. They circled the colony twice before she holstered her gun and leaned against a crate. There were no fires, no signs of a struggle, no bloodstains, no bodies. It was as if the colonists had just decided to stop what they were doing and vanish. It was all too familiar.

As if voicing her thoughts, Tali said, "It reminds me of Freedom's Progress. Everyone's just gone."

Shepard shook her head. "But this is Council space. Whoever did this, it couldn't have been the Collectors. There's no way they would have made it past the Fleet undetected."

"And if they did?" Garrus asked, his voice low.

She suppressed the shiver that ran down her spine. If the Collectors had somehow made it past the Council Fleet, then it was likely they'd get past the Alliance's defenses as well. Bekenstein was just a couple hours from here and home to millions. She firmly pushed the thought away. "We have no proof. It could be a Reaper relic, Prothean tech, another Thorian for all we know. We need more information."

They combed through the colony again, this time hacking and downloading information off the various datapads and terminals. Garrus shouted an excited, "One less to worry about!" after a quick solve, and they made a game of it, seeing who could hack them fastest. It wasn't long before Garrus and Shepard were exchanging tips in an attempt to unseat Tali from her solid place at first.

"Maybe if you two didn't spend so much time flirting with each other, this would be a competition," Tali teased.

Shepard shrugged. "What can I say? At the end of the day, I'd rather cuddle with Garrus than look through P-NES."

Garrus spluttered into his mic, and Tali laughed. "What was that last bit? I'm sure cuddling with Garrus includes looking at _that_ turian body part." Helmet or not, Shepard was sure Tali was smirking.

"Excuse you and your dirty mind. It's the Proceedings of the National Engineering Society, published on Earth. One of the best publications, really. Although the acronym is pretty unfortunate," she admitted with a grin.

"If that's the best publication coming from Earth, no wonder we spend so much time on Omega." 

Joker's voice cut in. "Commander. You might wanna save your talk for later. There's a transport coming in. Transponder's got it registered to a Dynamis Corporation."

"ETA?"

"An hour. Seems like they're in a rush to get to you."

She turned to Garrus and Tali, eyes serious and smile gone. "Right. Let's finish up here and see what we can learn before our guests arrive. I'd hate to find out that we've walked straight into another Collector trap."


	2. Something Wicked

Garrus wasn't sure what he was expecting. A legion of security mechs, maybe. Hopefully. That wouldn't be so terrible. After all, they'd slogged through 180 LOKIs and a YMIR on Neith and had gotten away relatively unscathed. But this felt so much more _wrong_. He shifted and peered down at the landing zone, noting that Shepard and Tali were also in position. He nestled back into his sniper's nest, waiting.

The datapads and terminals had contained nothing overtly suspicious. There had been logs on platinum and palladium exports, mining logs, casual messages between workers. There was no indication of indoctrination. Nothing like the terminals on the derelict Reaper, when Cerberus workers began hearing whispers and sharing memories. It all felt too normal. It all felt so wrong. His plates itched, and despite Shepard's confidence in the Citadel Fleet, he half expected to see Harbinger's glowing eyes on the platform.

Instead, he saw a transport ship landing, one not much larger than the Kodiak. It was white with a sleek black stripe, and without a single trace of yellow. Not Cerberus then, he thought. He zoomed in with his Mantis and saw two humans and an asari hop out. Not Collectors either. Judging by the way they moved and the guns strapped to their body, definitely not civilians. 

They scanned the area, and his breath caught when he saw the asari looking in his direction. His grip on the Mantis tightened, but she was already moving off, headed towards the mines with one of the men, while the other stayed with the vessel.

"Thoughts?" Shepard asked, her voice low.

"Could be raiders or scavengers," Tali whispered. "Maybe they saw the signal and thought it'd be easy money."

His eyes were fixed on the fringeless man by the vessel. "No, there's too few of them. And they're too well armed. Mercs?" 

"Maybe, but..." Shepard trailed off. He knew the end of that sentence anyways. He didn't think it'd be that easy either. "We need answers, and they're as likely to answer our questions as a varren is to fly." She sighed. "Aim to incapacitate. If they choose to surrender, we let them."

As if on cue, the asari and human circled back, this time heading for the residential quarters where Shepard and Tali were waiting. When they got about halfway, Tali popped out of cover and drained the man's shields. He staggered, and Shepard shot him in the shoulder and leg. Before the asari could respond, Garrus fired the concussive shot he'd prepared at her glowing head. Her barriers dropped, and Shepard shot her in the arm and leg. They both collapsed face first on the floor.

Maybe it would be easy for once, Garrus thought. He swung back to the vessel, but the fringeless human wasn't there. His visor wasn't picking up any heat signatures either. An infiltrator? Too late, he saw the shimmer behind Shepard. "On your six!" 

Shepard turned just as the man uncloaked, raised his omni-tool, and overloaded her shields. He heard her gasp and roll behind cover. Switching to his Mattock, he sprayed cover fire, hoping her shields would have enough time to recharge. The man raised his omni-tool again, and Garrus instinctively ducked. The wall behind him was instantly covered in a sheet of frost. 

A familiar purple sphere appeared next to Tali. "Go get 'em, Chatika!" she shouted. The drone managed to shoot off two rockets before it exploded into a shower of sparks. The odd thing was, Garrus was sure it wasn't from an overload, but from a high impact shot. 

"Shepard, something's weird here. This human... do you know him? A fellow N7?"

She slammed another thermal clip into her Valkyrie. "Of course not. He's definitely not Alliance," she said, before unloading the clip at his head. So, she'd decided to forego capture and just finish the job then. He saw Tali had noticed as well, and her aim swung from the man's leg to his face.

The man's shields dropped quickly, and Garrus fired a shot at the back of his neck. He jerked, then fell on the floor, blood pooling beneath him.

Shepard swung herself over the crates, searching for the asari and other man, but they'd vanished during the firefight. Their transport vessel was still on the platform though, so likely they hadn't gone far. She let out a huff and jogged back towards them. He and Tali stood, peering at the body. 

"You guys, okay?" she asked.

"Shepard, that guy... I saw him use a tactical cloak before throwing an overload at your shields."

Tali nodded. "And he used a concussive shot on my poor Chatika. Do you think this is another one of Cerberus' experiments?"

"Creating superhumans that can somehow do everything infiltrators, engineers, and soldiers spend years learning? Sounds right up their alley." Shepard reached down and hoisted the corpse onto her shoulder. He saw the blood run down her armor. 

"And the other two?" he asked, his eyes fixed on the thin river of blood.

"Left an obvious blood trail to follow. Too obvious. We have to assume they're like this guy and can use cloaks. I don't want to give them a chance at securing his body while we're distracted."

He nodded and took the corpse from her. She cocked her head at him, but he shrugged. He didn't tell her that seeing the red blood run down her armor left him with a bitter taste in his mouth. He thought she was going to ask, but instead, she said, "Let's see what we can learn from our fellow coworker." She turned and headed for the Kodiak with Garrus and Tali a step behind her.


End file.
